This is the coolest light display! The lights on this house are timed to music on a radio station broadcast from the house. I have seen emails like this but never seen it in person. It really exists!
The elementary school I'm student teaching at right now does a "Sing Around the Tree" program 4 times before Christmas. Every grade performs a couple of songs, a few teachers perform songs, and the whole school sings along to Christmas songs together. At faculty meeting a few weeks ago I signed up to be a part of this holiday activity and they assigned me to sing a solo! I decided to get my 6th graders involved, even though they were already singing two songs. I sang "Nuttin' for Christmas" and my kids posed for a picture for each line of the song earlier in the week. I made a slideshow of the pictures and then showed it on the giant screen while I sang for the whole school. Everyone loved it and now my students are famous!! It was a pretty funny slideshow...they were so creative! (Click here for a link to the words.)
There really is no place I'd rather be during the holidays than in an elementary school. Tomorrow I'm planning a Polar Express day and we're going to watch the movie with blankets, pillows, hot chocolate, and donuts, AND do lot's of fun Polar Expressy activities that I have yet to plan. (The students were mad that the school didn't allow them to watch the Grinch or Elf so I am trying to make it as fun as possible for them to watch the Polar Express). We're also doing a service chain. My students wanted to make a Christmas chain (you know, like the one you make in kindergarten) so I decided to do something good with it. Everytime a student does an act of service for another student or to help in the class, they can take a link off the chain. They briefly write what they did on the chain and then put it on a service poster. When the chain is done, there is a bag of candy at the end that I'll cut open like a pinata! Thanks momma for the fun idea - the students are starting to catch on. I love seeing them serve each other! Anyways, here are some of the pictures of my awesome students...
I like these pictures of Andy in Iraq. Thank goodness for Skype - we are able to chat with him weekly through the internet. Love modern technology. There's nothing like 9 Archer's chatting through the computer though we are states and countries apart.
He's in a city called Kirkuk in Northern Iraq. His job is to "find the bad guys," as he puts it. He questions people and searches villages for any signs of insurgent activity, while trying to avoid roadside bombs.
One more week of undergraduate education...YESSSSSSS!!! We are PSYCHED!Within the last month we have spent time in Rexburg, Mesa, and Tucson.
Eli's mom lives in Mesa so we spent Thanksgiving there before heading down to Tucson to see Eli's dad. A snow storm hit Utah the day we left so we were excited to experience the wonderful Arizona weather.
Climbing windmills in an orange orchard. My awesome friend, Aubrey, joined us for the night. (my roommate in China)
Museum for Youth - fun activities for kids! Eli and I both loved it...
This horse is named Goliath - appropriate I'd say.
I loved this statue outside of the library - so darn cute!
We loved our weekend in Rexburg, Idaho!Eli and I have been practicing a dance for our Christmas party! Check it out:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1185302088
I love having my sisters here in Provo. Even though I'm the odd one out since I'm married, it's still fun to get together for weekly dinners and chats. I've been with all 5 of my siblings all throughout college so it's going to be a sad day when Eli and I move somewhere on the other side of the country and don't get to see them anymore. Aly is living up the freshman life and Kristie is diving into her major. It's fun to see them build a life of their own away from home but still rely on their family! Loves loves loves to my sistas! 
American Fork canyon is GORGEOUS right now...the pictures don't even do it justice. We had the best campfire dinner in this canyon. I have always hated tinfoil dinners but realized that I can put other things in them besides the regular meat, potatoes, carrots, etc. I made a hawaiian dinner with pineapples and chicken and veggies...it was grub! I am a complete mountain girl...I love them!
This red tree was awesome - so bright
Cascade Falls
We LOVE fall...it is beautiful in Utah!I love teaching elementary school kids because they are so darn cute and so funny! I'll update this list often with funny things that happen at school. I want to remember them and I think they are fun to share with all of you!
October 4 - There is one boy in my class that drives me crazy. One day I found him standing in the back of the classroom throwing his shirt up and down in the middle of the lesson. I asked him what in the world was he doing because we were right in the middle of a lesson. "I just felt like throwing my shirt up and down." He's the kid who cut a girls hair the first day I taught by myself...yeah, I need to keep an eye on him at ALL times. So in short, he is kind of a naughty kid. Well, he left the class during a lesson to go to the bathroom and he was gone for 15 minutes. All the kids noticed and of course realized that it's not fair that he got to go to the bathroom for that long. I sent a student to fetch him and he comes into the classroom with a big grin on his face. As I pull him into the hall I asked what he has been doing for so long. He recognizes my frustration at him and starts to panic. (I never use a strict voice with my students so it was a change of venue for him.) His response: "Well I was in the bathroom and I, I, I think I might have diarrhea." I didn't know how to respond to that so I made sure that he was being honest and then sent him to the seat with the charge that he needed to be SO SO good the rest of the day and follow all my directions, or he would be in trouble. How would you respond to the naughty kid saying he has diarrhea???!!
October 9 - We read a trickster tale from the Andes Mountains as part of our continents unit. This story was hilarious! It's called Love and Roast Chicken for anyone that wants a cute picture book. I used a not-so-good Spanish accent when quoting the characters and the kids laughed the whole way through it. Their laughs made me laugh and we were all just sitting on the rug laughing together. Moments like those make me want to teach forever!
October 10 - As a class, we were coming up with words to make a Halloween acrostic poem (write the letters vertically and then think of words or phrases that start with each letter). When we got to N a few of the kids held up their whiteboards and had "Nacho Libre" written on it. I couldn't really read it of course so I asked what it said. I laughed and asked these 7 year old boys what that had to do with Halloween. "He kicks little kids." I ask again, what does that have to do with Halloween? Then they come up with a speech with reasons why to put Nacho Libre in the poem. We didn't add it, but it was pretty funny.
Tattling lesson - 7 year olds like to tattle on each other so I talked to them about it and said that it's hard for me to help make the situation before because I didn't see what happened. I gave them an example: "If Eli stole my shoe, I wouldn't go tell Mrs. Gardner (their actual 2nd grade teacher). She doesn't know what happened." and so on. The kids missed the message and responded, "Eli wouldn't steal your shoe."
We haven't been motivated to keep our blog up to date until today when Kelly and Jeff Evers showed us theirs and a few of their friends' blogs. What a fun way to keep in touch with what is going on in each other's lives. I've noticed that most blogs start after someone has a baby, and seeing as we don't yet, we'll see how long this lasts for us. Here's an update of our summer so far: (We'll add pictures too) We're living in Centennial, Colorado, in the basement of my parent's house. What a great way to save money for med school! It's so fun being with my family all the time (and having dinner made for us every night!). Eli took the MCAT in the middle of May and received a score that he's happy with. Hooray! What a relief for us! Now for the application process. . . We went on an awesome family trip to Lake Powell. That was the last time all of us will be together before Andy goes to Iraq. Lake Powell still remains my most favorite place in the world! And Eli is now an avid skiier after getting up on two skiis in a full body wetsuit (it was pretty chilly at the end of May). My new favorite quote of his is, "When we get a boat..." YAY!! That's my dream! Since Lake Powell, we have both been working a lot. I am nannying for 2 fun boys: Ethan-6 and Andrew-4. They are balls of energy and I LOVE being with them! This job ended up being perfect for us as it allows Eli to drop me off at work and then pick me up at the end of the day since I work for so long. I drive a minivan owned by the family I worked for - it's "the boy's van." I'm not one to sit around the house with them and watch tv: We go to the pool, play tennis, go to the zoo and museum, etc, etc, etc. We always have fun adventures! Eli has an internship at the National Jewish Medical Center in Denver (most recently in the news from the guy with Tuberculosis) sedating and injecting lab mice. He'll have to explain his research some time. He loves it and it's giving him good research experience and he finally understands why I love boating so much. rience for medical school. Other than that, Eli teaches the 13 and 14 year old Sunday School class at church and I spend even more time with kids as a CTR 6 teacher in primary. We both love teaching and being back in my family ward! Of course we do lots of fun things on the weeknights and during the weekends. We're both always up for a good adventure and fun time! We both love being back in Colorado...this is the best place!
On our way to see Ragtime at the Boulder Dinner Theater
Airforce Academy Chapel - We went to Colorado Springs with our brother-in-law, Christian to show him around. This is the day before our year anniversary so it was fun to visit a cool chapel!
Garden of the Gods
One year baby! Hooray!
Well, here it is. I feel like a pioneer, except that instead of 15 pounds each, we are somewhere around 450. Sara and I secured our first storage unit at Alpine Storage this week. 5'x8' is definitely more than enough room for our "meager supply" of storage items, so we share it with Kristie.
Sara's going to meet Dani Sanders tomorrow. They inspired me to start a blog.
